Just knowing Shakira is still in the world and capable of making albums as inspired and assured as "Fijacion Oral Vol 1" is like finding out ABBA are reforming or that the real Michael Jackson was kidnapped and replaced with an evil imposter shortly after making "Thriller".

So if you approach Fijación Oral expecting it to be Laundry Service Revisited you will not be happy. If, on the other hand, you can just listen to it without holding a lot of preconceived "this is not what Shakira is supposed to sound like" ideas, you will have one hell of a good time.

I think it's interesting how the average score given to this album by critics is over 10% lower than the user score . . . in my opinion I think it's interesting how the average score given to this album by critics is over 10% lower than the user score . . . in my opinion this is evidence that critics don't always know what they're talking about. This album is destined to be a classic in every sense, more than can be said about just about every album released in the last several years. There are other artists who may be more popular (though that's hard to imagine in this case, at least internationally), or more critically acclaimed, but most of them get dull after repeated listenings. This album gets better every time I hear it, something that I can say about very few albums at all (and something that surprises me greatly given the way Shakira's music is packaged to American audiences like it's no different from any other pop singer like [insert random female pop singer here]). Such a classification of her music might make sense if you're talking about her English-language stuff, but her voice really works much better speaking her native language and combined with her songwriting abilities puts this album on an entirely different level.…Expand